The Capital of Helsinki

Author notes

16. Tom and the Battle of Little Big Horn

Air Raid Robertson

on July 31, 2009

The joke told in this strip is an old favorite of mine that I first heard in the 8th grade. I really cracked up my peers at Bible camp with that one.

Anyways…

While perusing through a book about the history of erotic art I came across a few pieces by Tom of Finland. This guy, a World War II veteran, initially found work as a mainstream commercial artist. At that time he only drew his homoerotic pieces for the purposes of personal enjoyment.

However, he eventually found a venue for his gay erotica work. It didn't take long for his gay stuff to get popular enough for him to spend the bulk of his career in that particular idiom. Although this stuff was published in American magazines, Tom of Finland usually operated out of his studio in Helsinki.

It seemed natural for me to draw a little tribute to the man in Capital of Helsinki. Although the title of this strip is a jokey non-sequitor, I sort of feel obligated to work in a few references to Finnish culture as I come across it.

I adapted Tom of Finland's visual style as I saw it to a comic strip medium. His men are usually handsome in a James Dean/Elvis Presley sort of way. His shading is light and his facial details are scant in order to make his subjects flattering. Their facial expressions tend to be innocent and carefree no matter what kind of hedonistic debauchery they're up to. Backgrounds are generally either minimal or non-existant. The focus is on the men in uber-tight clothing engaing in carnal pleasure after all.

This strip, naturally, is hardly a perfect mimicry of Tom of Finland's artistic technique. The man typically worked with graphite pencils while I'm employing my usual tools of micron pen, prismacolor marker, and an adobe filter. Regardless, I hope any Tom of Finland fan who comes across this will consider this an affectionate tribute to the artist.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with Tom of Finland and curious about his art can check it out online. He has quite a few posted galleries that a quick google search can unearth. If you're anything like me you'll be quite impressed with his subtle and nuanced mastery of graphite shading.

Those of you who are squeamish about butt sex should stay away though. Pretty much everything he does involves sailors, bikers, soldiers, police officers, and Nazi stormtroopers fucking the shit out of each other.